Merry few days after Christmas!

I love Christmas! I love everything surrounding it as well. I love the anticipation building as the air gets colder; I love the lights, the carols, the candy, the baking, the sharing, the laughter, the parties, the shopping, the wrapping, the hiding, the secrets, the time with friends and family; and most of all, I love the focus on our Savior. True, it's not always there, but still it's on a much grander scale than the rest of the year!

I loved watching my kids as they went throughout the whole holiday season this year. They have the best little smiles and they are so loving and giving that this whole season just fit right in with their personalities. Not to mention the time they get to spend with cousins goofing off and being silly.

And for those of you who wonder -- no, Dad did NOT put up a trap this year. I guess he figured that since the youngest home was 24, he could forgo it this year. Ah, but what he didn't know was that there had to be SOME sort of trap! So my friend put together a setup with a really obnoxious buzzer (think air horn-type sound) and pull string trigger. No, I really don't have a head for that sort of thing, but I at least am able to set something like that up correctly and out of the line of sight! It was beautiful! No one heard me in my nighttime operations, and come 8 a.m. Christmas morning, a nice loud alarm shattered the air. Of course, it was Mom instead of Dad (she'd forgotten I'd warned her about the trap), but still . . . it was so nice to hear an alarm going off Christmas morning that wasn't triggered by kids!